Tina Gorman, Director of the Westfield Council on Aging (WNG file photo)
WESTFIELD- The Westfield Council on Aging is hosting a presentation at the Westfield Senior Center on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. about financial fraud directed at senior citizens.
Educating Against Senior Exploitation (EASE) is a joint presentation of the Council on Aging, the Polish National Credit Union and Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni. The event is free to attend but seating is limited.
Tina Gorman, executive director of the Council on Aging, said that she sees the scamming of the elderly as an enormous problem in Westfield and beyond. She noted that she had been approached by the Polish National Credit Union (PNCU) about doing a presentation such as this.
“I get emails from the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) on a regular basis,” said Gorman, “At least once a week with the latest scam.”
Often times, when the EOEA will send out information on the latest scams, they will note that different sections of the state will be subject to a different type of scam over a period of time. Some scammers will pose as a representative for Medicare, the IRS, or Social Security. Gorman emphasized that none of those organizations or agencies will cold call someone, and that the potential victim should simply hang up without saying a word if they get a call from someone claiming to be from those groups.
“Even if you have caller ID, sometimes it will come up looking legitimate.” Said Gorman, “I have had people who won’t answer the phone when they see ‘City of Westfield’ when I make the call because they’ve had other cases where it wasn’t the City of Westfield when they answered the phone.”
Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni (photo courtesy of the Hampden County District Attorney’s office)
Gorman said that while many of the scams towards the elderly are conducted by “professional” scam artists, a lot of scams are conducted by a member of the victim’s family.
“A lot of the time there are underlying problems. It might be an addiction problem, it might be drugs, alcohol, or a gambling addiction,” said Gorman, “A few years ago we had a woman who came in and her grandson had wiped out her bank account… Of course, this was somebody who she loved. This was not a guy who was typically in trouble or anything. She had nothing.”
In another case Gorman recalled, a woman living in Florida had been giving money to a man posing as an organization over the course of many months. The woman’s family in Westfield was unable to convince her that she was being scammed.
The Council on Aging has held similar talks in the past, but with the partnership with the PNCU, this will be the first time they will put an emphasis on preventing scams involving banking.
One recommendation Gorman makes to protect finances of someone or their elderly family is to always check your credit card and bank statements. Often, a scammer who has gained access to an account will begin by only taking smaller amounts of money to see if the victim would even notice.
She added that the Senior Center will check out the situation if a resident asks for assistance or advice.
“Anybody can fall for it,” said Gorman.
